Friday, 1 December 2017

Latest In Beauty Box | November 2017

If you’re bored of receiving a random selection of products, some of which are repeats and some of which you’d never use in a million years, it could just be for you, because you select what goes into the box each month.

For some, the whole point of schemes like Glossybox and Birchbox is that you don’t know what’s coming through the post each month, but for me, I’ve been signed up to both for quite a long time and I really found the amount of products I wasn’t really interested in outweighed the gems.

I found I was getting far more excited by boxes like Tili, where you can see the contents beforehand and decide if you want to order. The boxes provided good value and a nice way to try out new products – and if I didn’t like the offering that month, I’d just give it a swerve.

The Cosmopolitan Party Starter Edit was actually my way in here - a one-off box of products curated by Cosmo’s beauty editor. It had some great items in and was really good value.

Alongside these one off collections, Latest in Beauty also run a monthly box where you can select either 3 products for £9.00, 6 for £15.00 or 9 if you’re really serious about it all. The selection is quite large and updated each week, and covers make-up, skincare, nail polishes and even the dreaded perfume samples across a spectrum of brands from high-street to luxury.

I decided to start off with the three-piece edit to see if I liked it. It’s less products than the boxes I usually get which typically have 5 items but it also costs a few quid less (with free delivery) and I knew I’d like everything, so it works out okay. Here’s what I chose..

Body Shop Oils of Life Intensely Revitalising Facial Oil

I’ve been wanting to try this for absolutely ages - I’m a huge fan of using oils on my face at night-time, especially in winter when central heating and frosty mornings make my skin drier than usual.

Infused with Black Cumin seed oil from Egypt, Camellia seed oil from China and Rosehip seed oil from Chile, this acts as a perfect antioxidant to revitalise and moisturise the skin and to work against signs of aging.

This oil is an absolute pleasure to use because its lightweight and silky soft. It sinks in without a trace and doesn’t leave any residue. The oils blended in here are all cold-pressed which locks in all the most potent effects that can be lost through heat processing.

I really like this product, and the full size has beautiful luxurious packaging. It’s a great multi-tasking skin care hero and definitely worth investing in if you’re looking to combat dull winter skin.

Nude by Nature Radiant Powder Foundation (Ivory)

Mineral makeup is a revelation, because its super-lightweight and so good for your skin. If you don’t like the feeling of lots of heavy base on your skin, its ideal because it evens out skin and blurs imperfections without being heavy and mask-like.

Unlike a traditional powder, there’s nothing cakey about it. I often use on its own at the weekend or as a setting powder on top of a liquid foundation if I want a really flawless finish, and although

I’ve always used Bare Minerals in the past, Nude by Nature is an Australian brand that’s becoming more well known over here. There’s an SPF of 15 and the ingredients include Vitamic C-rich Kakadu Plum which fights free radical damage and boosts radiance and detoxifying Kaolin Clay to purify, nourish and smooth.

Its super easy to blend on and gives a light finish with adjustable coverage. The adorable rose gold pot with sifter it comes in is gorgeous too. One thing I always find with mineral powders is that they do tend to oxidise a little and go quite orange on the skin, so although the shade Ivory sounded a little on the light side for me, it actually blended in perfectly.

Revlon Ultra HD Lipstick Hibiscus

I’d heard quite a bit about this range of lipsticks when they launched. They have a gel formula that supposedly delivers brighter than bright colour and gives a smooth, lightweight feel on the lips.

The packaging is much nicer than Revlon’s usual lipstick, with a chrome mirrored bullet and clear cap. The lipstick is angled for an easier application. They deliver quite a sheeny finish, not quite a gloss but fairly shiny. I found that it was really streaky when I first applied it though, and not as moisturising as you might think.

The shade is a really vibrant coral orange that I’d only wear in the summer, and its also the kind of shade that tends to make teeth look less that sparkling, so I wasn’t all that impressed with it.

I did find that the size of the products varies drastically, so if you’re going to order I’d check the size against the regular product, as it hard to tell if things are samples, ‘deluxe samples’ or full size.

The Revlon lipstick was full size, the Nude by Nature foundation a ‘luxury sample’ (definitely at least a month’s worth of daily use or more, and in the correct packaging, just scaled down slightly) and the Oils of Life was a small sample (a couple of uses only). For some things I don’t mind, but having a mix of full size and sample makes it feel more worth the money.

Also included in the package were some lovely extras – Dr Botanicals Tropical Invigorating Cream, a sachet of Urbanveda Radiance Replenishing Night Cream, a sample of Philosophy Amazing Grace perfume, a deluxe sample of Regenerate Advanced Toothpaste. These were really lovely and unexpected.

The Dr Botanicals cream came in a beautiful floral print metal tube and was really large! It has Elderflower to protect skin from free radicals and pollutants, chamomile flower to heal and soothe damaged skin and Tiare Flower Extract to deeply moisturise, and its gorgeous!

As it was my first box, I also received a small black canvas makeup bag with the slogan ‘Glam on the Go’ and a lovely little rose gold metal tag zip. It’s the perfect size to pop in your handbag, and I’ve been using it like that ever since it came.

For £9.00 this was a great box and I look forward to seeing what’s up for grabs next month.